April 30, 2025 • 18 mins
Text us your questions to answer on a future episode
Marissa Pedersen joins Jennie to share her top tips for hiking with young children in Washington State as well as some of her favorite hikes with young children in Washington.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking podcast.
(00:08):
I'm your host. Jennie ThwingFlaming, and I'm your co host.
Craig Romano, Craig and I arehappy to have you here. We
provide practical and timely,seasonal hiking advice for
hikers, trail runners andpotential hikers and trail
runners of all skill and abilitylevels that is helpful,
accurate, fun and inclusive.
(00:29):
Thank you again to our sponsorfor the month of April,
Snohomish County tourism. Thankyou so much for supporting the
Washington State hiking podcast.
Welcome everybody. We have aspecial guest today, Marissa
Pederson. And Marissa is a bornand raised Washingtonian like
me, and she also has a website,postcards to seattle.com
(00:56):
where she writes about traveland outdoor adventures and
hikes. And she also recently,just at the beginning of April,
published her first guidebook,which is the moon guide to
Washington. Congratulations,Marissa, that's a big deal.
Thank you. Yeah. And today weare talking about hikes with
(01:17):
kids, because Marissa is a mom.
Her kids are now six and three,and she has hiked with both her
kids since they were babies,including sometimes by herself.
And so she's gonna share some ofher wisdom. First, we're gonna
talk about hiking with kids ingeneral, and then she's gonna
(01:38):
share five of her favorite hikesshe's done in Washington with
her kids so far. So Marissa,welcome to the Washington State
hiking podcast. Thanks forhaving me. Yeah, it's great
having you. So can you start offby just telling us a little bit
about kind of you as a hiker,maybe before you had kids, and
(01:58):
kind of what led you to committo hiking with your kids once
they were born? Sure, I've beenhiking years and years. So I've
been hiking for quite a fewyears. I've done hikes all over
the world. When I used to travelall over the world, tons of good
ones in Washington, like 17Mount St, Helens, tough ones
(02:21):
like that. So when I had myfirst kid six years ago, I was
definitely worried about whatthis would mean for my hiking.
Yes,obviously it's hard when you
have a little one. I didn't wantto leave my son, so I figured I
would take him with him. So Ithink I went on buy nothing or
Facebook or something. He got apretty cheap hiking backpack and
(02:44):
just started taking him when hewas a baby, and did a lot of
trial and tribulations. Somehikes went well. Some hikes were
a little bit harder, but I feelafter six years, I have a good
amount of tips hiking withbabies and toddlers and now
elementary school to hopefullyencourage people to continue
hiking. It's not always easy,but it's fun, and it's fun to
(03:06):
see my little boys do what I do.
So yeah, that's that's so fun. Ilove that. Okay, so tell us some
of your tips, like some of thethings that you've learned about
successful, happy hiking withkids.
You can never guarantee whatmood they're in. So that's but I
(03:27):
feel like the biggest tip is,start small. Don't go on a huge
hike right away. It's reallytempting. It was tempting
because when my son, my firstson, was five, six months,
spring was starting. All thewildflowers were starting. But a
lot of those hikes are reallyfar in the mountains, really
long drives. And so I was smartenough to say, You know what,
(03:49):
we're not going to push like, afive hour drive to go on some
eight mile hike with a baby.
Yeah. So I decided to do hikesaround the area, because I'm in
the Edmonds area, so So Ibasically just stuck to hikes
were close to home. Stuck tohikes that were shorter. And
honestly, for my comfort,sticking to hikes that were
close to a city just havingcomfort of having cell service,
yeah, if I needed to go to thestore and get something,
(04:12):
everything was right there thatwas the best to start with,
yeah. So, so, like, not only notas long of a drive, but also
easy to pick up things that youforgot, right kind of lower
stakes overall, right, and easyto abandon the hike if needed.
Like, easy to get back to thecar if needed. It's not like a
five mile hike back to the carif needed. Yes, yes. That's that
is really, that's really, reallywise. How about like, as your
(04:36):
kids got older, how did you kindof make decisions about, like,
how to adapt what you weredoing, or, How did you judge
like, what your older son waskind of ready for? How did you
figure that out? Um, just a lotof trial scene. Because
sometimes, especially thetoddlers, like older toddlers,
preschoolers, they have energyand they get really.
(05:00):
Excited, and then they'll goreally fast in the beginning and
then be really tired at the end,so try to pace it out. I feel
like I kind of have differenttips for different stages of
Babies Toddlers. Because withthe baby, the easiest thing was,
since they take naps for a longtime, like three hours,
sometimes especially whenthey're little, if it's possible
to time a hike with a nap,that's easy, because then they
(05:22):
will fall asleep, and you cancontinue hiking and where,
hopefully you have a supportivebackpack. And again, there's a
lot of cheap ones for sale. Youdon't need to go to REI and get
some $300 baby carrier, yeah,but a hard frame is good,
because then you can put thebaby down safely, make it still
keep napping, and then you cantake a break, because you will
get tired. You will need a breaktoo, and get your things. Yeah.
(05:42):
But I had a really good one forgetting the brand, but it had
the chest trap and then had hipstraps, and the hip strap could
fit my phone that could fit mywater and like a little snack,
so I didn't have to constantlytake off my backpack with the
baby, because I can get heavy.
Yeah? You know, I love that tip.
That's not, I'm not a parent,and that's not something I would
(06:03):
have thought of, is like, theimportance of being able to set
them down, yeah, so you can useyour hands right to, like, get
your own snack, or snack forthem, or whatever. Okay? And
then, as they get older, um,toddlers, they can't go too far.
I've heard something like onemile per however many years old
they are, I'm not sure. Itdepends on the kid. Of course,
(06:23):
if they never hike, they're notgonna hike. I still don't think
a three year old can hike threemiles, it seems quite far, but
again, you go at a slow pace.
Yep, I would say somethinggenerally flat for toddlers, for
sure, and one to two miles, andthen also still having a carrier
to get them at the end. Yeah, Imade that mistake a few times. I
think I started following somelike hiking mom Facebook groups.
(06:44):
Oh, they're so inspirational,and they were, but they have
been hiking like every day withtheir kids since they were
little, and so always having abackup plan, because it's not
fun carrying like a 3040, poundchild down a hill when they're
tired, so still having abackpack. So when I had the two
kids weeks now, I have two boys.
My husband and I got twobackpacks because I tried once
(07:06):
to do a hike, carrying the baby,the new baby, and then have the
toddler walk. And then justdidn't work. They had to, like,
carry the toddler and the hips alot, yeah, having backup
support. Don't, don't pushyourself too far, right? So are
you saying you wouldn'tnecessarily recommend taking a
baby and a toddler by yourself,no, unless you really know that
your toddler can do it, and it'sa really short one. But toddlers
(07:29):
are unpredictable. They getreally excited and then really
upset. So no, but as they getolder, when my oldest son got
into preschool, then he couldpick the hikes and so finding
pictures. You can find picturesof stuff they like, but also
something exciting at the end.
So waterfalls, big kids forkids, yeah. So we've done a ton
of waterfall hikes, because whodoesn't love a waterfall? Yeah?
So having the motivation say,Oh, we're almost there at the
(07:51):
end, as a waterfall, orsomething like that, or a lake,
like Lake is fun in the summer,or a trail that has just fun
things along the way, likereally big trees to see, or
something that, you know, isalong the way, just some kind of
motivation, because after awhile they're done, yeah, I'm
going, Yeah. And, you know, Ithink that's a good point too,
about waterfall hikes, becausenot only are they cool to look
(08:12):
out for anybody, but they oftenhave those cool like logs or
creeks, or, you know, cool rocksand right, like that, yeah, mud
to play in all that stuff. I'vealso heard that you can
kind of bring your own things,like little, not toys, but
little things you can put in thetrail, like make, like a little
(08:33):
gnome toy you have, or somethingalong the way. I don't quite
know how the prep works forthat, cause I feel like one
person has to put that ahead oftime, and then this, as the kid
goes along, they can find thaton the trail. But I've also
heard other things, like, let'shike 50 more feet, or something,
something relatable to a kid,they don't quite understand
feet, and then they get a littletreat, like a snack or something
like that. So food motivation, Iguess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I
(08:56):
love it, yeah. That's cool.
Yeah. It's good to know that.
Like, there are some kind offun, more complicated things out
there. But also, what I'mhearing you say is that it
doesn't have to be this bigordeal, you know, you can use
some of their favorite snacksand things like that and stuff
that they're interested in.
Yeah, cool. Okay, well, we'regonna take a short break, and
(09:17):
then when we come back, we'regoing to talk about Marissa,
favorite hikes in Washingtonwith kids. Our sponsor for the
month of April is SnohomishCounty tourism. Get access to
the great outdoors only minutesfrom downtown Seattle, due to
its temperate climate, SnohomishCounty Washington is the perfect
(09:38):
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throughout the year, SnohomishCounty offers an abundance of
family friendly fun, includingwalking and hiking trails, many
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Snohomish County tourism. Thankyou so much for sponsoring the
Washington State hiking podcast.
You we are back with MarissaPeterson from postcards to
(11:10):
Seattle, and the author of themoon guide to Washington. And
we're talking about hikes withkids in Washington State. So
Marissa between living inWashington pretty much your
whole life, and researching theguidebook, the moon guide, and
living in Snohomish County, likeI'd love to hear out of all of
(11:35):
those different experiences,what are say your five favorite
hikes to do with your kids. Ialways say a good one to start
with kids is other than SeattleDiscovery Park, since it is a
network of trails, you canchoose to continue. You can make
it longer. You can stop andagain. Like when I started, like
(11:55):
I said, you're close to thecity. You're in the city.
Essentially, your car is closed,everything is closed. And
there's a lot of fun thingsthere too. There's you go see,
like, the lighthouse, yeah, thewater. There's so many different
ways you can go, yeah. So youcan always start with, like, the
shortest trail, do a littleloop, or just come back the same
way and then extend it if it'sgoing well or not. So I love
that one up north, north ofSeattle, we have meadowdale
(12:18):
Beach Park, so that's a nice onetoo. There is a hill coming
back, but it's fun because yougo down, there's big stairs to
go on some bridges, there's alot to see, yeah, especially a
lot of like birds and things inthe spring and the summer, and
then you end up at the ocean.
And so that's fun. So that's agreat place for snack. Kids have
a lot of fun there, and thenthey come back. So I love
meadowdale. If we're going to goto Olympic Peninsula, Mary Mayor
(12:40):
Falls is great. It's, I'm tryingto think what it is a mile and a
half that sounds right,something about that, but it's
mainly flat. It's almostessentially flat, except for the
very end, when you get to thewaterfall. Yeah. So that's so
easy to do. There's a lot of bigtrees to see along the way, and
then you have the giantwaterfalls, and that's a good
place to take a break as well,yep. And even that. You know,
(13:01):
when I did tours, that was ahike we used to do on our tours
for the same reason, right? Likethat, it's relatively short, so
it was three miles round trip.
And unless you go, it'scompletely flat, unless you go
up to the top. And I think, Ithink any hike that's good for a
tour is also good for youngchildren, right? Again,
(13:24):
unpredictable. You don't quiteknow what's gonna happen. Lots
of things to see along the way.
Great. Yeah, that's a fun one.
Another waterfall one you coulddo, Wallace falls, yep, out of
highway two. That's that's nicebecause you can choose which
waterfall you can stop at. Thefirst waterfall you can go to
the last, if it's going well,yeah. Going well, yep. And
you're just essentially walkingalong the river for a long good
(13:47):
portion of it. So there's a lotto see, like, there's a time to
see. I took my son when he was atoddler there, that was really
interesting. We made it to themiddle waterfall, and then I
could tell he was done. It'salso nice, because when you're
coming back, it's downhill, soit's easier, versus you start
downhill. Yes, yes, yeah, thatis good. And then if you wanted
to go over the mountains toWenatchee sage hills, is really
(14:07):
good one. I took my youngest sonthere. He was a baby during, I
think was end of May, when allthe beautiful wildflowers are
out there. And so that's anetwork of trails that's so easy
to just start and stop wheneveryou need to there's so much to
see. I think even him, he waslooking around a lot at
everything we saw there. Yeah,and then you're right in the
city. We got dinner there, like,it was perfect. Yeah, so, and
(14:30):
Wenatchee is so it's sodifferent from the west side of
the mountains. Like, I'll evenas an adult, always find that so
fascinating. It's like there'sdifferent plants and different
views. And Wenatchee is a greattown. I love Wenatchee. We go
there like they have so manygood breweries, which would be
another podcast. But yes, I loveWenatchee in general. Yes, we
should. We should do a breweriesof Washington podcast. Yes, you
(14:53):
would be the right person to dothat one. So we will do that in
the future. Yeah, love it. Doyou have? Do your kids have?
Uh, like in those places thatare a little further away from
home, say, like Wallace falls orsage hills near Wenatchee or on
the Olympic Peninsula. Do youhave any places that are really
great to go with kids, like,after that you've been to that
(15:17):
you felt like were really goodfor them, that come to mind
as far as food or activities,either Wenatchee, we've been
stopping it all the time. So wedo a lot of road trips as a
family, and then writing thisbook, The guidebook to
Washington, I did some of thetrips on my own. Exploring is
basically every corner of thestate is in this book, yeah, but
the family came for a lotbecause, like, they like to do
(15:37):
that. So Wenatchee is just sogreat when you're coming from
the east side. So we with theboys. We have their little bikes
in the car. So we always try tofind like Wenatchee has, like
the Waterfront Trail, yep, goingin there, just getting their
energy. I think is the amazingWenatchee Valley brewing. They
(15:57):
are very kid friendly. Theyhave, like, an outdoor area.
They have a kids area, which isvery rare, so that's good. They
have good food. Finding abrewery that actually has a full
menu is important with kids,yeah, then they're happy, and
everyone's happy and satisfied.
No, Wenatchee is great. There'sa lot to do there. Yeah, cool.
Is there anything on the OlympicPeninsula? I know that when I
(16:18):
was a kid, I really loved theDungeness Spit as well. I mean,
that's more hiking. That's not,you know, for you, but I love
that. And also salt Creek, oh,yeah, I really loved, um, we've
stayed in Port Angeles a fewtimes. Yep, there's, I mean,
there's fun stuff to do. There'sgetting the name of it. There's
(16:38):
a little, it's not an aquarium.
There's a center on the waterright there, kind of Canada,
yep, I'm gonna say it printedsomething, Life Center. I'm
saying, I'm gonna say it wrong.
But it's really small, but it'sreally fun. They can do a touch
pool and things like that, closeby or next door. There's an
arcade that was nice. We werethere one day on a rainy day. So
there's a lot and there's somany restaurants. There so many
(17:00):
restaurants, so that's reallyhelpful too, definitely. Yeah, I
know the place you're talkingabout. It's like, right by the
ferry that goes over, like youwere saying, over to Victoria.
Yeah, those are all, you know.
Another thing I was thinkingwhile you were talking Marissa,
is that a lot of those arewaterfall hikes, and we talked
about all the reasons Those aregreat. And another one is
(17:21):
because it doesn't matter ifit's raining, right? You know,
it's like, oh, you're in theforest and you're looking at a
waterfall, right? It's raining,big deal, yeah. Is there
anything else you want to shareMarissa with everybody as far as
advice or your wisdom aroundhiking with young kids? I think
always have extra snacks, havetoo many snacks, and have extra
(17:44):
water, because, like, runningout of those things are not
good, and then just instilling asense of pride in your kids
after the hike is done, we'lltake, I mean, I take a bunch of
pictures naturally because of myjob, being travel writer and all
that. But now, especially myolder one will love to look
through pictures of things we'vedone. You did that and you want
that far so they get excited andtell other people about it?
Yeah, because I want them towant to hike when they're out of
(18:06):
the house. And yes, they'reolder, yeah, when you can't
carry them anymore.
Cool. Well, Marissa, thank youso much for coming on today and
sharing all this great kidfriendly hiking info. Thanks for
having me. You.
Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking podcast.
(00:08):
I'm your host. Jennie ThwingFlaming, and I'm your co host.
Craig Romano, Craig and I arehappy to have you here. We
provide practical and timely,seasonal hiking advice for
hikers, trail runners andpotential hikers and trail
runners of all skill and abilitylevels that is helpful,
accurate, fun and inclusive.
(00:29):
Thank you again to our sponsorfor the month of April,
Snohomish County tourism. Thankyou so much for supporting the
Washington State hiking podcast.
Welcome everybody. We have aspecial guest today, Marissa
Pederson. And Marissa is a bornand raised Washingtonian like
me, and she also has a website,postcards to seattle.com
(00:56):
where she writes about traveland outdoor adventures and
hikes. And she also recently,just at the beginning of April,
published her first guidebook,which is the moon guide to
Washington. Congratulations,Marissa, that's a big deal.
Thank you. Yeah. And today weare talking about hikes with
(01:17):
kids, because Marissa is a mom.
Her kids are now six and three,and she has hiked with both her
kids since they were babies,including sometimes by herself.
And so she's gonna share some ofher wisdom. First, we're gonna
talk about hiking with kids ingeneral, and then she's gonna
(01:38):
share five of her favorite hikesshe's done in Washington with
her kids so far. So Marissa,welcome to the Washington State
hiking podcast. Thanks forhaving me. Yeah, it's great
having you. So can you start offby just telling us a little bit
about kind of you as a hiker,maybe before you had kids, and
(01:58):
kind of what led you to committo hiking with your kids once
they were born? Sure, I've beenhiking years and years. So I've
been hiking for quite a fewyears. I've done hikes all over
the world. When I used to travelall over the world, tons of good
ones in Washington, like 17Mount St, Helens, tough ones
(02:21):
like that. So when I had myfirst kid six years ago, I was
definitely worried about whatthis would mean for my hiking.
Yes,obviously it's hard when you
have a little one. I didn't wantto leave my son, so I figured I
would take him with him. So Ithink I went on buy nothing or
Facebook or something. He got apretty cheap hiking backpack and
(02:44):
just started taking him when hewas a baby, and did a lot of
trial and tribulations. Somehikes went well. Some hikes were
a little bit harder, but I feelafter six years, I have a good
amount of tips hiking withbabies and toddlers and now
elementary school to hopefullyencourage people to continue
hiking. It's not always easy,but it's fun, and it's fun to
(03:06):
see my little boys do what I do.
So yeah, that's that's so fun. Ilove that. Okay, so tell us some
of your tips, like some of thethings that you've learned about
successful, happy hiking withkids.
You can never guarantee whatmood they're in. So that's but I
(03:27):
feel like the biggest tip is,start small. Don't go on a huge
hike right away. It's reallytempting. It was tempting
because when my son, my firstson, was five, six months,
spring was starting. All thewildflowers were starting. But a
lot of those hikes are reallyfar in the mountains, really
long drives. And so I was smartenough to say, You know what,
(03:49):
we're not going to push like, afive hour drive to go on some
eight mile hike with a baby.
Yeah. So I decided to do hikesaround the area, because I'm in
the Edmonds area, so So Ibasically just stuck to hikes
were close to home. Stuck tohikes that were shorter. And
honestly, for my comfort,sticking to hikes that were
close to a city just havingcomfort of having cell service,
yeah, if I needed to go to thestore and get something,
(04:12):
everything was right there thatwas the best to start with,
yeah. So, so, like, not only notas long of a drive, but also
easy to pick up things that youforgot, right kind of lower
stakes overall, right, and easyto abandon the hike if needed.
Like, easy to get back to thecar if needed. It's not like a
five mile hike back to the carif needed. Yes, yes. That's that
is really, that's really, reallywise. How about like, as your
(04:36):
kids got older, how did you kindof make decisions about, like,
how to adapt what you weredoing, or, How did you judge
like, what your older son waskind of ready for? How did you
figure that out? Um, just a lotof trial scene. Because
sometimes, especially thetoddlers, like older toddlers,
preschoolers, they have energyand they get really.
(05:00):
Excited, and then they'll goreally fast in the beginning and
then be really tired at the end,so try to pace it out. I feel
like I kind of have differenttips for different stages of
Babies Toddlers. Because withthe baby, the easiest thing was,
since they take naps for a longtime, like three hours,
sometimes especially whenthey're little, if it's possible
to time a hike with a nap,that's easy, because then they
(05:22):
will fall asleep, and you cancontinue hiking and where,
hopefully you have a supportivebackpack. And again, there's a
lot of cheap ones for sale. Youdon't need to go to REI and get
some $300 baby carrier, yeah,but a hard frame is good,
because then you can put thebaby down safely, make it still
keep napping, and then you cantake a break, because you will
get tired. You will need a breaktoo, and get your things. Yeah.
(05:42):
But I had a really good one forgetting the brand, but it had
the chest trap and then had hipstraps, and the hip strap could
fit my phone that could fit mywater and like a little snack,
so I didn't have to constantlytake off my backpack with the
baby, because I can get heavy.
Yeah? You know, I love that tip.
That's not, I'm not a parent,and that's not something I would
(06:03):
have thought of, is like, theimportance of being able to set
them down, yeah, so you can useyour hands right to, like, get
your own snack, or snack forthem, or whatever. Okay? And
then, as they get older, um,toddlers, they can't go too far.
I've heard something like onemile per however many years old
they are, I'm not sure. Itdepends on the kid. Of course,
(06:23):
if they never hike, they're notgonna hike. I still don't think
a three year old can hike threemiles, it seems quite far, but
again, you go at a slow pace.
Yep, I would say somethinggenerally flat for toddlers, for
sure, and one to two miles, andthen also still having a carrier
to get them at the end. Yeah, Imade that mistake a few times. I
think I started following somelike hiking mom Facebook groups.
(06:44):
Oh, they're so inspirational,and they were, but they have
been hiking like every day withtheir kids since they were
little, and so always having abackup plan, because it's not
fun carrying like a 3040, poundchild down a hill when they're
tired, so still having abackpack. So when I had the two
kids weeks now, I have two boys.
My husband and I got twobackpacks because I tried once
(07:06):
to do a hike, carrying the baby,the new baby, and then have the
toddler walk. And then justdidn't work. They had to, like,
carry the toddler and the hips alot, yeah, having backup
support. Don't, don't pushyourself too far, right? So are
you saying you wouldn'tnecessarily recommend taking a
baby and a toddler by yourself,no, unless you really know that
your toddler can do it, and it'sa really short one. But toddlers
(07:29):
are unpredictable. They getreally excited and then really
upset. So no, but as they getolder, when my oldest son got
into preschool, then he couldpick the hikes and so finding
pictures. You can find picturesof stuff they like, but also
something exciting at the end.
So waterfalls, big kids forkids, yeah. So we've done a ton
of waterfall hikes, because whodoesn't love a waterfall? Yeah?
So having the motivation say,Oh, we're almost there at the
(07:51):
end, as a waterfall, orsomething like that, or a lake,
like Lake is fun in the summer,or a trail that has just fun
things along the way, likereally big trees to see, or
something that, you know, isalong the way, just some kind of
motivation, because after awhile they're done, yeah, I'm
going, Yeah. And, you know, Ithink that's a good point too,
about waterfall hikes, becausenot only are they cool to look
(08:12):
out for anybody, but they oftenhave those cool like logs or
creeks, or, you know, cool rocksand right, like that, yeah, mud
to play in all that stuff. I'vealso heard that you can
kind of bring your own things,like little, not toys, but
little things you can put in thetrail, like make, like a little
(08:33):
gnome toy you have, or somethingalong the way. I don't quite
know how the prep works forthat, cause I feel like one
person has to put that ahead oftime, and then this, as the kid
goes along, they can find thaton the trail. But I've also
heard other things, like, let'shike 50 more feet, or something,
something relatable to a kid,they don't quite understand
feet, and then they get a littletreat, like a snack or something
like that. So food motivation, Iguess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I
(08:56):
love it, yeah. That's cool.
Yeah. It's good to know that.
Like, there are some kind offun, more complicated things out
there. But also, what I'mhearing you say is that it
doesn't have to be this bigordeal, you know, you can use
some of their favorite snacksand things like that and stuff
that they're interested in.
Yeah, cool. Okay, well, we'regonna take a short break, and
(09:17):
then when we come back, we'regoing to talk about Marissa,
favorite hikes in Washingtonwith kids. Our sponsor for the
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(09:38):
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Snohomish County tourism. Thankyou so much for sponsoring the
Washington State hiking podcast.
You we are back with MarissaPeterson from postcards to
(11:10):
Seattle, and the author of themoon guide to Washington. And
we're talking about hikes withkids in Washington State. So
Marissa between living inWashington pretty much your
whole life, and researching theguidebook, the moon guide, and
living in Snohomish County, likeI'd love to hear out of all of
(11:35):
those different experiences,what are say your five favorite
hikes to do with your kids. Ialways say a good one to start
with kids is other than SeattleDiscovery Park, since it is a
network of trails, you canchoose to continue. You can make
it longer. You can stop andagain. Like when I started, like
(11:55):
I said, you're close to thecity. You're in the city.
Essentially, your car is closed,everything is closed. And
there's a lot of fun thingsthere too. There's you go see,
like, the lighthouse, yeah, thewater. There's so many different
ways you can go, yeah. So youcan always start with, like, the
shortest trail, do a littleloop, or just come back the same
way and then extend it if it'sgoing well or not. So I love
that one up north, north ofSeattle, we have meadowdale
(12:18):
Beach Park, so that's a nice onetoo. There is a hill coming
back, but it's fun because yougo down, there's big stairs to
go on some bridges, there's alot to see, yeah, especially a
lot of like birds and things inthe spring and the summer, and
then you end up at the ocean.
And so that's fun. So that's agreat place for snack. Kids have
a lot of fun there, and thenthey come back. So I love
meadowdale. If we're going to goto Olympic Peninsula, Mary Mayor
(12:40):
Falls is great. It's, I'm tryingto think what it is a mile and a
half that sounds right,something about that, but it's
mainly flat. It's almostessentially flat, except for the
very end, when you get to thewaterfall. Yeah. So that's so
easy to do. There's a lot of bigtrees to see along the way, and
then you have the giantwaterfalls, and that's a good
place to take a break as well,yep. And even that. You know,
(13:01):
when I did tours, that was ahike we used to do on our tours
for the same reason, right? Likethat, it's relatively short, so
it was three miles round trip.
And unless you go, it'scompletely flat, unless you go
up to the top. And I think, Ithink any hike that's good for a
tour is also good for youngchildren, right? Again,
(13:24):
unpredictable. You don't quiteknow what's gonna happen. Lots
of things to see along the way.
Great. Yeah, that's a fun one.
Another waterfall one you coulddo, Wallace falls, yep, out of
highway two. That's that's nicebecause you can choose which
waterfall you can stop at. Thefirst waterfall you can go to
the last, if it's going well,yeah. Going well, yep. And
you're just essentially walkingalong the river for a long good
(13:47):
portion of it. So there's a lotto see, like, there's a time to
see. I took my son when he was atoddler there, that was really
interesting. We made it to themiddle waterfall, and then I
could tell he was done. It'salso nice, because when you're
coming back, it's downhill, soit's easier, versus you start
downhill. Yes, yes, yeah, thatis good. And then if you wanted
to go over the mountains toWenatchee sage hills, is really
(14:07):
good one. I took my youngest sonthere. He was a baby during, I
think was end of May, when allthe beautiful wildflowers are
out there. And so that's anetwork of trails that's so easy
to just start and stop wheneveryou need to there's so much to
see. I think even him, he waslooking around a lot at
everything we saw there. Yeah,and then you're right in the
city. We got dinner there, like,it was perfect. Yeah, so, and
(14:30):
Wenatchee is so it's sodifferent from the west side of
the mountains. Like, I'll evenas an adult, always find that so
fascinating. It's like there'sdifferent plants and different
views. And Wenatchee is a greattown. I love Wenatchee. We go
there like they have so manygood breweries, which would be
another podcast. But yes, I loveWenatchee in general. Yes, we
should. We should do a breweriesof Washington podcast. Yes, you
(14:53):
would be the right person to dothat one. So we will do that in
the future. Yeah, love it. Doyou have? Do your kids have?
Uh, like in those places thatare a little further away from
home, say, like Wallace falls orsage hills near Wenatchee or on
the Olympic Peninsula. Do youhave any places that are really
great to go with kids, like,after that you've been to that
(15:17):
you felt like were really goodfor them, that come to mind
as far as food or activities,either Wenatchee, we've been
stopping it all the time. So wedo a lot of road trips as a
family, and then writing thisbook, The guidebook to
Washington, I did some of thetrips on my own. Exploring is
basically every corner of thestate is in this book, yeah, but
the family came for a lotbecause, like, they like to do
(15:37):
that. So Wenatchee is just sogreat when you're coming from
the east side. So we with theboys. We have their little bikes
in the car. So we always try tofind like Wenatchee has, like
the Waterfront Trail, yep, goingin there, just getting their
energy. I think is the amazingWenatchee Valley brewing. They
(15:57):
are very kid friendly. Theyhave, like, an outdoor area.
They have a kids area, which isvery rare, so that's good. They
have good food. Finding abrewery that actually has a full
menu is important with kids,yeah, then they're happy, and
everyone's happy and satisfied.
No, Wenatchee is great. There'sa lot to do there. Yeah, cool.
Is there anything on the OlympicPeninsula? I know that when I
(16:18):
was a kid, I really loved theDungeness Spit as well. I mean,
that's more hiking. That's not,you know, for you, but I love
that. And also salt Creek, oh,yeah, I really loved, um, we've
stayed in Port Angeles a fewtimes. Yep, there's, I mean,
there's fun stuff to do. There'sgetting the name of it. There's
(16:38):
a little, it's not an aquarium.
There's a center on the waterright there, kind of Canada,
yep, I'm gonna say it printedsomething, Life Center. I'm
saying, I'm gonna say it wrong.
But it's really small, but it'sreally fun. They can do a touch
pool and things like that, closeby or next door. There's an
arcade that was nice. We werethere one day on a rainy day. So
there's a lot and there's somany restaurants. There so many
(17:00):
restaurants, so that's reallyhelpful too, definitely. Yeah, I
know the place you're talkingabout. It's like, right by the
ferry that goes over, like youwere saying, over to Victoria.
Yeah, those are all, you know.
Another thing I was thinkingwhile you were talking Marissa,
is that a lot of those arewaterfall hikes, and we talked
about all the reasons Those aregreat. And another one is
(17:21):
because it doesn't matter ifit's raining, right? You know,
it's like, oh, you're in theforest and you're looking at a
waterfall, right? It's raining,big deal, yeah. Is there
anything else you want to shareMarissa with everybody as far as
advice or your wisdom aroundhiking with young kids? I think
always have extra snacks, havetoo many snacks, and have extra
(17:44):
water, because, like, runningout of those things are not
good, and then just instilling asense of pride in your kids
after the hike is done, we'lltake, I mean, I take a bunch of
pictures naturally because of myjob, being travel writer and all
that. But now, especially myolder one will love to look
through pictures of things we'vedone. You did that and you want
that far so they get excited andtell other people about it?
Yeah, because I want them towant to hike when they're out of
(18:06):
the house. And yes, they'reolder, yeah, when you can't
carry them anymore.
Cool. Well, Marissa, thank youso much for coming on today and
sharing all this great kidfriendly hiking info. Thanks for
having me. You.
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